It’s Time to Build on a Long Tradition of Racial Justice Movements
A 19th Century uprising in Jamaica serves as a reminder of how protest has advanced the fight for equality throughout history. Let’s not squander this latest call to action.
The protests of 2020 have roots in Jamaica’s Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865, when dissenters set fire to the courthouse.
Image: Culture Club/Hulton Archive via Getty Images
On Oct. 11, 1865, hundreds of incensed Black men and women marched to the Morant Bay police station in Jamaica, disillusioned with the colony’s justice system.
Protesters seized control and acquired weapons before marching towards the courthouse, where they opened the jails and released 51 prisoners. They were soon met with force by a local militia, but managed to set the courthouse on fire and then went on to burn the homes of prominent figures who embodied the moneyed and political class. For the next several days, the unrest spread to neighboring estates as more Jamaicans joined the rebellion in solidarity with the dissenters.